NICE should expand its role to cover quality in the NHS, says Darzi

Quality and evidence of quality should become part of “everyday life” for NHS staff and patients, the health minister Ari Darzi told the 2008 conference of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) on 3 December.

Lord Darzi praised the institute for becoming “an established part of the NHS landscape” and for helping to improve the care of millions of NHS patients in its 10 years of existence. But he said that the next step was for NICE to expand its role to encompass quality.

Mike Rawlins, chairman of NICE, said that the organisation’s future work would be influenced by the final report of Lord Darzi’s NHS next stage review, …